There's a lot of talk right now about working home. Huge companies like Twitter and Facebook are saying how brilliantly it has worked and the future is home-working. I dare to disagree with these successful giants.
I've worked in many many offices in over a dozen countries. The average office scenario is globally pretty similar these days; open plan, coffee corners, more light, less walls, plenty of plants. I'm very aware that I am 'old school' compared to the carefree, wear what you want, yoga in your lunch break offices of today. However, an office is an office. It is a place where people go for 7+ hours a day. Many have to commute, losing precious work time, free time or family time.
Some of us just aren't that good at working from home. If I have a deadline, I can be supremeley efficient whilst working from home. I've worked through those commuting hours, skipped the shower, knuckled down and reached the deadline that I most probably wouldn't have reached had I been at the office. However, that is the exception and not the rule. Mostly, my 'office day at home' involves starting even later than I would have had I commuted. The dog gets a longer walk, the kitchen gets a deeper clean, the laundry goes on and I plump myself at my 'desk' (kitchen counter) a good 15-30 mins later than usual.
During the course of the morning, my coffee break is replaced by a laundry break, the lunch hour becomes a skype chat hour (or longer) and things get hoovered that would never normally get hoovered. Apéro might even start just before the work day is over (I blame that on the Bacardi days). But when I'm home, I'm seeing that fluffdust ball under the sofa that will only take me a minute to dyson up. When switching laundry to the dryer, I might as well fold and put away those sheets. My housekeeping improves. The things that I used to do in a rushed hour when I got home from work, can now be done during my working day. Ironing becomes bizarrely more attractive than excel. Evenings are nicer, a lot more netflix, and a lot less laundry. No makeup. What's not to love about working from home? BUT is this benefitting my company, or even my cv? Probably not. It doesn't matter whether you work for yourself or some huge multinational, you don't concentrate as well in your home environment (unless there is that deadline).
And let's talk office behaviour. We have all learned to CMD/ALT tab a shopping browser back to a work related browser at super speed when someone walks past our highly visible open plan screen. But Amazon browsing can suddenly get longer when no colleagues are walking past. You learn enforced efficiency in the office, people popping by your desk, interrupting for meetings, background noise, fire drills.... the silence of home can be deafening in comparison.
I have made some great friends through working. Diverse fun people, I've met my fair share of geeks too (hey, I'm in IT), but it's been an interesting ride and I've learned so much from spending 8 hours a day with a bunch of random strangers. You don't make friends at home. Noone is going to pass by, say 'hey want a coffee' and 10 minutes later you've solved the issue you were working on just by chatting about it with a colleague.
Imagine being the new kid in the office. But you have to work from home. How are you going to get the vibe, make friends, learn about office culture? Office parties, goodbye lunches and xmas events, no matter how painful they may be, have taught us all so much about the company we're working for. If you spend 50% of your time working from home, you're going to miss all that. Sure, if your job is the kind that says - here's a pile of paper, work through it then go home - then maybe you'll be ok. But most of our jobs aren't like that. The first months are so important to get the feel of the place, the hierarchy, who works where, on what floor - who is the go to person for a tech problem, who is the gossip, the fun person, the office bore. This isn't just a job, these are life skills in diplomacy, self-awareness, focus, perspective and professionalism. You don't make real connections in a Zoom meeting.
Equally, maybe you're the 20 year plus executive. You have a nice home office, you can deal with most stuff from home. Your kids are old enough to not interrupt, you're busy enough to be efficient, your work friends are already made. But your presence in the office influences others. The brief advice you give to some trainee, the appreciation you give to the canteen staff, your physical presence in a meeting. This matters. It creates respect, it drives ambition, your staff need to see you in the flesh.
Some of us don't have home office set ups. What if you flat share with 3 people, or you live in a studio, or you have kids that are home with the sitter before your working day is finished. Working from home implies that you have a nice space you can lock yourself away in and concentrate. Many of us don't have that and can't afford that. Getting a job shouldn't mean you have to get a home upgrade too.
So I say bring back the office. Times have undoubtedly changed, we've all learned a lot, and for sure, some people will work from home more and be just as efficient. But the office setup didn't last till 2020 by being a waste of time. My best work has been done when working with a team, befriending my colleagues, working together and achieving way more than we could have alone. That cannot be recreated with everyone sitting in their own space. I am the first to say that many business trips are unnecessary, and we can take Covid's lesson and cut our carbon footprint by taking advantage of todays tech to make meaningful meetings happen from afar. But don't kill the office.
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